HealthlineNews

Maintaining the Elusive "Work-Life Balance" Is Better for Your Health

Written by Suzanne Boothby
| Published on March 1, 2013

Singles and parents alike struggle to keep up with work, family, and their health, and employers can do more to help.

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, made headlines last week when she announced a new policy
requiring remote workers to report to the office, banning flexible work
at the company and sparking a national debate about the state of work-life balance in 2013.

“To
become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration
will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why
it is critical that we are all present in our offices,” according to
Mayer's memo.

“She
gets the award for the CEO that doesn’t get it,” Thompson said in an
interview with Healthline. “It’s 2013; the world is your office. My
iphone is my office.”

Thompson’s ROWE concept goes beyond
telework; it’s a management strategy in which employees are evaluated
based on performance, not presence.

“As long as someone else is
managing your time, you will never achieve work-life balance,” Thompson
said. “In the old system, time and physical presence equals results. You
can show up to work and look busy and still get a paycheck. We need to
stop managing people and start managing the work.”

In a ROWE office people can work at any time, from any location, as long as they deliver measurable results.

Work, Life, and Health

Studies
support the ROWE model of offering employees more flexibility in their
schedules. Self-scheduled work can reduce exhaustion, improve sleep,
lower blood pressure, improve mental well-being, and yield better
self-rated health, according to a 2010 Cochrane research review evaluating more than 16,000 people.

University of Minnesota
professors Phyllis Moen and Erin Kelly of the Flexible Work and
Well-Being Center have studied work-life balance issues for years.

“Work-life
conflicts are a public health concern,” Kelly said. “We absorb stress
as individuals and that spills over into our family life. An inflexible
workplace produces problems with employee turnover, engagement, and
healthcare costs.”

In a 2006 study, the researchers examined what
was taking place at Best Buy as the company moved to adopt ROWE. They
collected data through observations, informal discussions, surveys, and
in-depth interviews.

“We found employees were sleeping more and
managing their health differently,” Kelly said. “They were more likely
to go to the doctor when they should.”

Their study
showed that ROWE promoted healthy behaviors among employees: increasing
their odds of quitting smoking, decreasing their smoking frequency, and
promoting perceptions of adequate time for healthy meals.

Parents and Singles Both Need Balance

Workers
struggling with work-life balance report less satisfaction with their
lives and jobs and more signs of anxiety and depression, according to
new research from Michigan State University (MSU).

"People
in our study repeatedly said 'I can take care of my job demands, but
then I have no time for working out, volunteering in my community,
pursuing friendships, or anything else,'" said Ann Marie Ryan, MSU
professor of psychology and co-author of the study in a press release.

Ryan's
team found that workers who are single and without children have just
as much trouble finding the time and energy to manage their lives
outside of work as those with spouses and kids. Childlessness among
employees has been increasing in the United States, particularly among
female managers, according to the study.

Traditionally, companies
have focused on helping workers find a "work-family" balance. But
Jessica Keeney, study co-author and recent doctoral graduate in
psychology at MSU, said that employers need to adopt a broader concept
of “work-life.”

"As organizations strive to implement more
inclusive HR policies, they might consider offering benefits such as
flexible work arrangements to a wider audience than just parents,"
Keeney said in a press release. "Simply relabeling programs from
'work-family' to 'work-life' is not enough; it may also require a shift
in organizational culture."

Take, for example, an employee who is
single and without children who wants to leave work early to train for a
triathlon, Ryan said. Should that employee have less right to leave
early than one who wants to catch her child's soccer game at 4 p.m.?

"We have to recognize that non-work roles beyond family also have value," Ryan said.

The
three areas in which work interfered the most for all study
participants were health, including exercising and doctor's
appointments; family; and leisure including hobbies, playing sports,
reading, and watching TV.

How to Achieve Greater Work-Life Balance

Thompson offers many tips for people who want to take control of their work time.

First, keep all conversations with your manager objective.

“Talk
about the work and the results,” she said. “Don’t get into
conversations about time or leaving work early or working from home.
Instead say something like, ‘We are on track based on what we talked
about earlier to meet the deadline, is there anything else you need from
me?’”

She suggests keeping your manager informed about work progress, instead of asking whether you can leave early that day.

More from Healthline.com:

Healthline’s mission is to make the people of the world healthier through the power of information. We do this by creating quality health information that is authoritative, approachable, and actionable.

Join more than 30 million monthly visitors like you and let Healthline be your guide to better health.